Take No Offense
“Take No Offense”
Third Sunday of Advent YEAR A, December 15, 2019 RM Advent 3, 2016
Isaiah 35:1-10 Matthew 11:2-11
Andrew Kennaly, Sandpoint, Idaho
Religion and Politics! Two topics we tend to avoid discussing because they can be controversial. We even try to separate them from each other, assuming the church should not be political. If that’s the case, then we shouldn’t be reading Mathew 11:2-11. We should skip over this Advent lectionary passage because in these verses, Jesus is being very political. John the Baptizer is being political. They are both “in the face” of the Empire as they speak truth to power. Isaiah 35 and the lectionary passage from James chapter 5 aren’t much different, very similar. We can thank God this is true!
In Matthew, we can’t even get through the first sentence. “When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing,” we say, “What?” John has been imprisoned? Herod the King has put John in the dungeon, and yet even from there John hears what “the Messiah” was doing, and sends word by his disciples, asking Jesus a question. On the one hand, the drama of this scene involves John questioning Jesus’ identity, while on the other hand, just by how he writes that sentence, Matthew gives it away that there is no question. Using that term, “Messiah” is a very loaded use for both religion and politics.
At Christmas, we’d rather get sentimental about the birth of Jesus and enjoy music of the season. Fair enough, peace on earth, good will; one song after another proclaims the gift of the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. We know those titles that are given to the Messiah, God’s anointed One. But remember, these terms, even though our culture sentimentalizes them; these are loaded terms. That first term, for example, “Wonderful Counselor,” is also a political title, and even though in his musical piece, the composer, Handel, puts a comma between these two words, ‘Wonderful, Counselor” creating a separation, there is actually no comma, only connection. Wonderful Counselor is a Counselor of Wonders.
Walter Brueggemann reminds us, in biblical usage, “the term counselor refers to the exercise of governance, the capacity to administer, to plan, and to execute policy. God is praised for assigning a new human king who is expected to devise plans and policies for the benefit of the entire realm. […] the new king will have extraordinary wisdom and foresight about planning [… and] the royal plans and policies will be of exceptional quality, a big surprise that goes beyond all the usual conventions of political power and practice.”
So, when we sing about the birth of Jesus, God’s gift of a Counselor of Wonder, we are also making a faith statement that Jesus is wise, and goes “beyond conventional assumptions” in ways that critique “how the world works.” It’s no wonder “the government is upon his shoulders.” The vision Jesus shares with John’s messengers prove in subtle yet effective ways that he recognizes the abuse and exploitation of the Roman Empire and of Herod the King. Jesus offers God’s vision of proper administration through a very subversive statement.
In looking at Jesus sending the response back to imprisoned John, Brueggemann picks up on Jesus’ critique of political power, saying, “The old limits of the possible have been exposed as fraudulent inventions designed to keep the powerless in their places. Jesus violates such invented limitations and opens the world to the impossible. […] Of course, Jesus shows that those who ‘take offense’ are the elite leaders who have articulated the possible in a particular way; they have persuaded the common folk that their own definitions of the possible is correct. But now they have been exposed. They will strike back, in their foolishness, to halt such ‘wonderful counsel.’”
Jesus is making his declaration! He knows what he’s up against and yet he also knows who he is, to the depth of his being, and that his life shows the impossible is actually possible, not through corrupt politicians, not through the status quo of the Empire, but through the power of God. Of course, this threatens the established order. And when the established order “strikes back,” it can be a frightening experience.
No wonder Isaiah proclaims “to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”
English doesn’t help us very much here. Vengeance, for example, isn’t retributive, not angrily getting back at somebody. Vengeance is rather pointing towards God’s determination, God’s resolve; that God will not waver. “Here is your God!” See?! And “terrible recompense” is not showing God to be some tyrannical power to be feared because of angry judgments lashing out to condemn, but rather that God simply gives what has already been given. “Recompense.” Re-Compensation. Giving back what has been given. If you’ve sought justice, you get justice. If you have lived in love, you get love. If you have oppressed or violated people,… you get what you create; your free will has chosen.
So how do we live in ways that claim God’s wisdom, God’s wonderful counsel? How do we strengthen our hearts? How do we wait patiently on the Lord, who does all those wonderful things like justice, freedom, food, vision, restoration, hospitality, welcome, courage, opening blind eyes and unstopping ears so they hear? These are the qualities at the core of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. But Jesus commits his life to show that these qualities are at the core of our life too.
Sister Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun, an author and a speaker. In her book, Illuminated Life, she talks about this core, about “Life's essential goodness…” and how
“We so often think that those who refuse under any conditions to deny the essential goodness of life are mad. Look at the suffering. Look at the evil. Be real, we say. We are so often inclined to think that those who continue to see life where life seems to be empty and futile are, at best, foolish. Be sensible, we say. But we may be the ones who are mad. The truth is that contemplation, the ability to see behind the obvious to the soul of life, is the ultimate sanity. The contemplative sees life as it really is under all the struggle and pain: imbued with God, glowing with eternity, full of energy, and so overflowing with good that evil never totally triumphs. Contemplation keeps the inner eye focused on Goodness.” […]
In the end, joy, praise and gratitude live in the hearts of those who live in God. It is not the joy of fools. The contemplative knows evil when it rears its head. […] The contemplative knows struggle when difficulties come. […] The contemplative recognizes the difference between chaff and grain. The contemplative knows that grain is for bread, but the contemplative also knows that chaff is for heat. The contemplative realizes that everything in life has for its purpose the kindling of the God-life within us. And so, the contemplative goes on with joy and resounds with praise and lives in [and with] gratitude. Always.” (Illuminated Life by Joan Chittister (Orbis), Shared on Bill Peterson’s blog, Still Faith-Full after all these years).
“Tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
This is how Jesus subverts the Empire as he wisely inaugurates life’s essential goodness, like God has been doing, is doing, and shall do, all along.
Ego-centric, self-referential living finds the need to defend itself. Christ-centered, Christo-centric living has no such need. When we are in situations where we are offended, that’s a pretty strong indication that we are living in our small mind, letting our false self get the best of us. Jesus says, “blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me” because living in our True Self, from our divine core and essential goodness, grounded in God’s goodness, we are not offended. The contemplative experiences this inner peace that leads to outer peace that leads to a blessed world based on God’s presence and action.
One of the things we can do as a spiritual discipline that helps this blessing flourish is especially fitting for this Advent and Christmas season. Taking time to experience God in prayer; taking time to contemplate. Patiently waiting upon the Lord, but then, after, to take that prayerful, receiving stance and translate it into action, finding ways that God is leading you to encourage others; to patiently love. As Richard Rohr says, “Be peace and do justice, but don’t expect perfection in yourself or the world. Perfectionism contributes to intolerance and judgmentalism and makes ordinary love largely impossible. Jesus was an absolute realist, patient with the ordinary, the broken, the weak, and those who failed. Following [Jesus] is a vocation to share the fate of God for the life of the World, and to love the way that God loves – which we cannot do by ourselves.” (Center for Action and Contemplation, daily emails, www.cac.org).
As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we are called to action, to joyfully share a deeper wisdom with the world, to shape policies that are for the benefit of the larger realm, to claim life’s essential goodness as we patiently include the ordinary, and to joyfully be God’s people; Wonderful Council! May God’s goodness and humble love be lived and experienced, now, even as forever. Amen.